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Tuesday, May 07, 2013

RIP: Ray Harryhausen (1920 - 2013)

To say that the work of Ray Harryhausen had a significant impact on my life would be an understatement. Not only are JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS and THE SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD two of my favorite films, films I cannot wait to share with my twin daughters, they are also parts of some of the happiest memories of my childhood. I remember watching these films with my mom and dad when they ran as matinee films. I remember my parents "secretly" smuggling me in to see SINBAD AND THE EYE OF THE TIGER at the Drive-In. I hid under a sheet in the back of the Gremlin and they pretended I wasn't there. It turns out that they paid the family rate and that the subterfuge was just for my entertainment. The movies were undeniably magical and one of my two favorite Comic Con moments is sitting in the audience at a "Ray & Ray" panel (that's Ray Bradbury and Ray Harryhausen) where they both talked about their life's work. Our local science fiction/fantasy bookstore in Glendale would frequently hold Ray & Ray signings. It was one of the things that makes Glendale the perfect place to live.Finding out that Harryhausen has passed is sad. That sadness is lessened by the truth that Harryhausen added so much joy to the world -- joy that will long outlive me.

Thank you Mr. Harryhausen for my childhood joys, and thank you for the future joy I will be able to experience thanks to your imagination.

The Harryhausen family regret to announce the death of Ray Harryhausen,
Visual Effects pioneer and stop-motion model animator. He was a
multi-award winner which includes a special Oscar and BAFTA. Ray’s
influence on today’s film makers was enormous, with luminaries; Steven
Spielberg, James Cameron, Peter Jackson,
George Lucas, John Landis and the UK’s own Nick Park have cited
Harryhausen as being the man whose work inspired their own creations.

Harryhausen’s fascination with animated models began when he first saw
Willis O’Brien’s creations in KING KONG with his boyhood friend, the
author Ray Bradbury in 1933, and he made his first foray into filmmaking
in 1935 with home-movies that featured his youthful attempts at model
animation. Over the period of the next 46 years, he made some of the
genres best known movies – MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (1949), IT CAME FROM BENEATH
THE SEA (1955), 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH (1957), MYSTERIUOUS ISLAND
(1961), ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. (1966), THE VALLEY OF GWANGI (1969),
three films based on the adventures of SINBAD and CLASH OF THE TITANS
(1981). He is perhaps best remembered for his extraordinary animation
of seven skeletons in JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS (1963) which took him
three months to film.

Harryhausen’s genius was in being able
to bring his models alive. Whether they were prehistoric dinosaurs or
mythological creatures, in Ray’s hands they were no longer puppets but
became instead characters in their own right, just as important as the
actors they played against and in most cases even more so.

Today The Ray & Diana Harryhausen Foundation, a charitable Trust set
up by Ray on the 10th April 1986, is devoted to the protection of Ray’s
name and body of work as well as archiving, preserving and restoring
Ray’s extensive Collection.

Tributes have been heaped upon Harryhausen for his work by his peers in recent years.

“Ray has been a great inspiration to us all in special visual industry.
The art of his earlier films, which most of us grew up on, inspired us
so much.” “Without Ray Harryhausen, there would likely have been no
STAR WARS” George Lucas.

“THE LORD OF THE RINGS is my
‘Ray Harryhausen movie’. Without his life-long love of his wondrous
images and storytelling it would never have been made – not by me at
least” Peter Jackson

“In my mind he will always be the king of stop-motion animation” Nick Park

"His legacy of course is in good hands Because it’s carried in the DNA of so many film fans." Randy Cook

"You know I’m always saying to the guys that I work with now on computer graphics “do it like Ray Harryhausen” Phil Tippett

“What we do now digitally with computers, Ray did digitally long before but without computers. Only with his digits.” Terry Gilliam.

"His patience, his endurance have inspired so many of us." Peter Jackson

"Ray, your inspiration goes with us forever." Steven Spielberg

"I think all of us who are practioners in the arts of science fiction
and fantasy movies now all feel that we’re standing on the shoulders of a
giant. If not for Ray’s contribution to the collective dreamscape, we wouldn’t be who we are." James Cameron